The Effect of Peer Review on Information Literacy Outcomes in a Chemical Literature Course

This article describes the use of peer review in a writing project involving upper-level chemistry students in a chemical literature course, with the goal of improving student performance in meeting information literacy outcomes. Students were asked to find articles on a topic of their choice over the course of a semester and assemble the results into a brief paper, which was anonymously peer-reviewed by their classmates and then revised. The papers and the reviews were evaluated using a rubric based on ACRL information literacy competency standards for science, engineering, and technology students. Significant improvements relating to seven standards-based outcomes were observed (p < 0.02), corresponding to specific reviewer criticisms in up to 43% of student papers.